South Africa’s coronavirus death toll has climbed to 57,183 as another 120 people succumbed to the virus in the 24 hours to mid-morning Wednesday amid signs of all the hallmarks of a third wave in the making.
According to the health ministry on Wednesday, those who died during the period under review were part of the cumulative Covid-19 cases of 1,699,849 people.
Out of these cumulative cases, a total of 4,209 new infections were detected between Tuesday and Wednesday.
The 4,209 cases are a notable increase from the 3,285 cases reported in the previous day, the ministry noted, adding that the country has 61,246 active cases, however.
According to the office, some 1,581,540 patients have beat the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in a recovery rate of 93%, since the outbreak of the disease in March 2020 in the country.
The country has so far vaccinated 1,524,589 people — with over one million being senior citizens aged 60 years and above — during a vaccination programme that kicked off in February this year, the health ministry’s director general Sandile Buthelezi said on Wednesday.
The health authorities have set a target of vaccinating over 40 million people to achieve a herd immunity among the country’s 59 million inhabitants in order to have a grip on the pandemic, Buthelezi said.
Meanwhile, the European and South-East Asia regions recorded marked declines in the number of new cases in the past week, whereas Africa reported an upsurge.
Despite the surge of the disease locally and the rest of Africa, the UN World Health Organisation said on average the global cases and death incidences continued to decrease, with over three million new weekly cases and over 73,000 new deaths.
This translated to a 15% and an 8% decrease, respectively, compared to the previous week, according to the UN agency.
NM/jn/APA